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The  Art  of  Life  Series 


The   Use  of  the  Margin 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 

The  New  Humanism 
A  Book  of  Meditations 
Moral  Education 
Human  Equipment 


> 


u  ^ 


THE  ART   OF    LIFE   SERIES 

Edward  Howard  Griggs,  Editor 


The  Use  of  the  Margin 


BY 

EDWARD    HOWARD    GRIGGS 

Z.  5  34  6 
WITH  AN   INTRODUCTION 
TO   THE  SERIES 


NEW  YORK 

B.    W.    HUEBSCH 

1907 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
B.  W.  HUEBSCH 


First  Printing,  December,  1907 
Second  Printing,  December,  1908 
Third  Printing,  June,  1910. 


a  f7' 


Introduction  to  the  Series 

Of  all  problems,  those  of  human  hving 
are  most  absorbingly  interesting,  just  be- 
cause they  never  reach  a  final  solution. 
In  all  our  living  is  an  unavoidable  ele- 
ment of  experiment.  If  we  wait  until  we 
know  how  to  live  before  we  begin,  we 
never  begin.  If  we  do  not  make  friends 
until  we  know  all  about  the  laws  of 
friendship  and  all  the  subtle  elements  in- 
volved in  the  adjustment  of  one  person- 
ahty  to  another,  we  die  friendless.  If 
we  do  not  choose  a  vocation  until  we 
know  all  the  laws  determining  the  active 
expression  of  our  capacities  in  some  ave- 
nue of  work,  we  fail  to  find  our  call. 

Thus  it  is  necessary  to  dare  something 
courageously  in  all  actively  growing 
human  life.  The  most  we  can  hope  for 
is  light  enough  to  take  the  next  step ;  and 

7 


8        Introduction  to  the  Series 

then  we  must  take  it  bravely,  trusting 
that,  if  we  do,  the  light  will  still  be  one 
step  in  advance. 

This  element  of  experiment  in  all 
human  living  means  that  life  can  never 
be  reduced  to  exact  science,  but  will 
always  belong  in  the  field  of  art.  Now 
art  is  the  most  discouraging  and  the  most 
exalting  thing  we  know :  the  most  dis- 
couraging because  we  never  come  to  an 
end,  every  achievement  being  only  a  new 
failure  on  the  basis  of  which  we  must 
try  again.  But  art  is  also  the  most 
exalting  thing  we  know — for  exactly  the 
same  reason :  we  may  always  do  better 
if  we  try;  we  reach  no  finished  conclu- 
sion; each  attainment  is  an  inspiration  to 
fresh  endeavor,  and  we  may  go  on  limit- 
lessly  in  the  growth  of  the  spirit  through 
the  succession  of  forms. 

Science,  moreover,  can  be  taught;  but 
art  must  be  learned  in  practice.  Granted 
a  good  mind  in  teacher  and  student,  the 
facts  and  laws  of  science  may  be  given 


Introduction  to  the  Series        9 

over  from  one  mind  to  another;  but  the 
most  that  a  teacher  of  art  can  hope  to 
accompHsh  is  to  suggest  and  stimulate 
activity  and,  by  the  sparing  use  of  crit- 
icism, correct  faults,  while  the  art  must 
be  acquired  by  the  student  solely  through 
his  own  effort  and  activity. 

May  we  not  add  that  the  highest  and 
most  universal  fine  art,  gathering  up  all 
the  others  under  itself  and  giving  them 
place  and  meaning,  is  the  art  of  living? 
The  most  glorious  picture  ever  painted 
Is  in  the  color  of  life,  on  the  background 
of  time  and  nature,  in  the  shape  of  a 
good  deed.  The  most  wonderful  of 
songs,  beyond  all  that  ever  came  from 
brain  of  poet  or  lips  of  singer,  is  made 
up  of  melodious  days  in  the  sweet  har- 
mony of  a  beautiful  lifetime. 

The  aim  of  this  series  of  brief  books 
Is  to  illuminate  this  never-to-be-finished 
art  of  living.  There  Is  no  thought  of 
solving  the  problems  or  giving  dogmatic 
theories  of  conduct.     Rather  the  purpose 


lo      Introduction  to  the  Series 

is  to  bring  together  in  brief  form  the 
thoughts  of  some  wise  minds  and  the 
insight  and  appreciation  of  some  deep 
characters,  trained  in  the  actual  world  of 
experience  but  attaining  a  vision  of  life 
in  clear  and  wide  perspective.  Such 
books  should  act  as  a  challenge  to  the 
reader's  own  mind,  bringing  him  to  a 
clearer  recognition  of  the  problems  of 
his  life  and  the  laws  governing  them, 
deepening  his  Insight  Into  the  wonder  and 
meaning  of  life  and  developing  an  atti- 
tude of  appreciation  that  may  make  pos- 
sible the  wise  and  earnest  facing  of  the 
deeps,  dark  or  beautiful,  in  the  life  of 
the  personal  spirit. 


The  Use  of  the  Margin 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  character- 
istic in  the  modern  development  of  edu- 
cation has  been  the  extension  of  the 
period  of  culture  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual. In  the  one  direction  it  has  been 
extended  into  the  Kindergarten  age  and 
beyond  to  the  school  at  the  mother's 
knee;  in  the  other  direction  we  have 
pushed  it  forward  to  the  limit  of  life 
itself.  Thoughtful  people  no  longer 
speak  of  "finishing"  their  education: 
each  day  of  life  is  recognized  as  getting 
part  of  its  best  meaning  as  a  fresh  oppor- 
tunity of  education.  We  realize  that  if 
growth  of  mind  and  spirit  ceases,  life  is 
really  at  an  end,  even  if  physical  exist- 
ence continue  for  a  time. 

With  this  extension  of  the  period  of 
culture  has  come  a  changed  meaning  in 


II 


1 2       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

the  word  education,  resulting  In  its  use 
In  two  widely  different  senses  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  In  the  more  limited  view  we 
mean  by  education  the  Initiation  of  the 
child  into  some  part  of  the  gathered-up 
experience  of  the  race.  This  capital 
from  the  human  past  Is  represented  by 
science  and  art;  and  our  aim  in  the  ordi- 
nary school-process  Is  to  equip  the  child 
with  some  part  of  this  capital,  so  that  he 
may  start  well  on  in  the  business  of  life 
and  not  have  to  learn  every  lesson  by 
the  hard,  slow  path  of  experience. 

In  the  larger,  vaguer  use  of  the  word, 
education  means  much  more  than  this, 
namely,  the  whole  development  of  char- 
acter. Intelligence,  appreciation  and  power 
that  comes  through  human  living.  This 
life-education  is  not  achieved  mainly  In 
the  schools :  on  the  contrary  it  comes  from 
the  experiences  and  activities  of  life 
itself,  while  the  function  of  the  school  Is 
merely  supplementary.  There  are,  in- 
deed, two  schoolmasters  at  whose   feet 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       i  3 

we  sit  day  after  day,  and  from  whom 
we  receive  by  far  the  larger  part  of  our 
life-culture :  they  are,  Love  and  Work — 
the  relationships  we  sustain  to  other 
individuals  and  the  vocation  through 
which  we  express  ourselves  and  make  our 
contribution  to  the  world.  Not  only  are 
thv^se  the  channels  through  which  comes 
the  best  of  our  education,  but  our  ability 
as  men  and  women  to  draw  deeply  from 
the  \^ife  of  the  past  depends  largely  upon 
the  development  we  receive  through  the 
more  fundamental  Influences  of  love  and 
work. 

Now  all  human  beings  have  access  to 
these  mxDst  significant  channels  of  educa- 
tion. \t  Is  true,  some  are  blessed  with 
much  deeper  and  richer  opportunities  of 
life  than  others,  but  the  humblest  and 
most  restricted  of  us  lives  in  some  degree 
the  great,  typical  experiences  of  human- 
ity. That  is  the  wonder  of  life,  that 
the  universe  centers  in  each  individual 
and   each   Is    an    organizing   center    for 


14        The    Use  of  the  Margin 

infinity  and  eternity.  Every  human 
being  is  surrounded  by  a  little  world  of 
other  persons  to  whom  he  is  bound  by 
ties,  stronger  or  weaker;  while  the  most 
unfortunate  has  some  opportunity,  sel- 
dom If  ever  exhausted,  for  culture  and 
service  through  work.  What  then  ex- 
plains the  wide  difference  in  the  culture 
received  by  various  Individuals  through 
these  primary  channels  of  experience? 
One  man  will  settle  down  Into  the  rou- 
tine of  his  calling,  digging  the  ruts 
deeper  each  day,  until  he  quite  loses 
power  to  see  out  from  them ;  another,  in 
the  same  vocation,  shows  an  ability  to 
make  each  day's  work  a  source  of  new 
growth  In  power  and  In  appreciation. 
So,  one  human  being  will  rest  passively 
on  the  fact  of  some  well-established  love 
or  friendship,  and  thus  lose  after  a  time 
the  beauty  of  the  relationship  and  the 
meaning  It  once  possessed  for  his  life; 
while  another  actively  woos  the  love  of 
his  friend  every  day,  and  so  finds  deep 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       1 5 

ever  opening  below  deep  in  the  relation- 
ship, with  an  ever  fresh  realization  of 
the  truth  and  wonder  of  life. 

The  reason  why  these  opposite  results 
may  come  from  the  same  opportunities  of 
life  is  found  chiefly  in  a  third  aspect  of 
the  problem  of  culture — the  one  I  wish 
to  consider  here.  After  all,  it  is  rela- 
tively slight  margins  of  difference  be- 
tween men  that  determine  success  or  fail- 
ure in  all  phases  of  life  All  human 
beings  are  much  more  alike  than  they 
are  different  from  each  other.  Raise 
just  a  little  the  quality  of  manhood  ex- 
pressed in  any  avenue  of  life,  and  you 
multiply  many  times  the  result  finally 
achieved.  You  recall  the  definition  of 
wealth  and  poverty  as  consisting  respec- 
tively in  being  fifty  dollars  ahead  and 
fifty  dollars  behind.  That  is  just  it: 
indeed,  the  amount  might  be  considera- 
bly lessened.  One  who  is  a  few  dollars 
ahead  can  economize,  buying  when  the 
price  is  low,  supplying  what  is  soon  to 


1 6       The    Use  of  the  Margin 

be  needed  in  advance  of  the  actual  de- 
mand for  It.  On  the  other  hand,  one 
who  is  a  few  dollars  behind  must  buy  in 
small  quantities  in  the  dearest  market, 
procuring  only  what  is  immediately  in- 
dispensable. Such  an  one  has  no  possible 
chance  to  economize  nor  to  procure  in 
advance  the  slight  comforts  that  so 
largely  determine  the  ease  and  satisfac- 
tion of  life.  Thus  a  slight  change  in  the 
relation  of  income  to  expenditure  may 
turn  the  scale  of  life  from  success  to 
failure  or  from  failure  to  success. 

The  same  law  holds  with  reference  to 
all  our  problems;  and  thus  the  business 
of  living — the  true  vocation  of  man — is 
much  lilce  any  lesser  undertaking.  In 
any  business  there  is  a  certain  basis  of 
capital  on  which  it  proceeds.  On  this 
basis  is  an  income,  of  which  a  large  part 
must  be  used  merely  in  paying  running 
expenses;  but  in  any  business  that  is  not  a 
failure  there  is  some  margin  of  profit,  the 
use  of  which  determines,  in  the  long  run, 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       ij 

the  success  of  the  undertaking.  Is  the 
margin  carelessly  wasted,  or  is  It,  in  part 
at  least,  converted  into  the  capital  of 
the  business?  That  is  the  important 
question  with  reference  to  the  final  out- 
come of  the  whole  activity. 

So  is  it  with  the  vocation  of  living. 
We  come  into  the  world  with  a  certain 
capital  of  health,  character,  intelligence, 
talent,  power.  The  Initial  capital  Is  not 
of  our  choosing;  yet,  constantly  changing 
as  it  Is  under  the  Influence  of  action  and 
experience,  it  Is  the  basis  on  which  we 
do  business  In  the  vocation  of  life.  We 
have,  moreover,  a  definite  income;  and 
In  one  aspect  at  least  the  universe  has 
been  just  to  us:  we  have  just  twenty-four 
hours  a  day  Income  from  God;  and  the 
wonderful  thing  about  this  income  In 
time  is  that  we  can  save  It  only  by  spend- 
ing it.  If  we  would  save  our  dollars  and 
our  pennies  we  must  put  them  away,  not 
spending  them  In  the  ordinary  routine  of 
life;  but  If  we  would  save  our  hours  and 


1 8       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

our  moments  we  must  spend  them,  and 
the  more  completely  they  are  spent  for 
ends  that  are  worth  while,  the  more  they 
are  converted  into  the  capital  of  charac- 
ter, intelligence  and  power. 

We  must  all,  moreover,  spend  a  large 
part  of  our  income  merely  in  paying 
running  expenses  in  the  business  of  life, 
that  is,  in  making  a  living.  Whether  we 
are  rich  or  poor,  with  inherited  property 
or  without,  the  first  duty  of  man  is  to 
square  accounts,  to  leave  the  world  as 
well  off  as  one  found  it;  and,  indeed,  he 
who  fails  to  contribute  hi  some  form  to 
society  as  much  as  he  takes  from  it  has 
failed  of  ordinary  honesty  and  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  pauper  or  a  thief  whatever 
his  wealth  may  be.  Thus  the  demand 
that  each  should  pay  running  expenses 
in  the  business  of  life  is  universal;  yet 
for  all  except  those  at  the  bottom  of  our 
society,  on  whom  Its  Industrial  structure 
rests  most  pitilessly,  there  is  some  margin 
of   time   each    is    free   to    spend   as   he 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       1 9 

pleases;  and,  as  In  any  other  business, 
the  use  of  the  margin  goes  far  In  deter- 
mining the  ultimate  success  or  failure  In 
the  business  of  life. 

First  of  all.  It  Is  In  the  use  of  the  mar- 
gin that  we  are  most  free.  It  takes  two 
to  make  a  friendship :  In  every  personal 
relationship  one  Is  subject  partly  to  the 
action  of  wills  other  than  one's  own. 
Even  In  the  problem  of  the  vocation  nat- 
ural capacity  and  choice  are  not  alone  to 
be  considered.  One  must  consider  what 
the  world  demands  or  needs,  and  so  work 
constantly  in  response  to  objective  fac- 
tors beyond  one's  control.  In  the  use  of 
the  margin,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are 
free  to  follow  our  own  choice  and  desire 
with  no  compulsion  from  external  forces. 
That  Is  why  the  use  of  the  margin  so 
wonderfully  tests  character.  If  love  Is 
the  power  that  most  fully  calls  out  all 
the  potentialities  of  one's  being,  and  so 
tests  more  deeply  than  any  other  chal- 
lenge of  life  all  that  one  has  been  and 


20       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

all  that  one  is,  it  is  the  way  one  uses  the 
margin  that  shows  the  line  of  movement 
and  reveals  the  ideal.  When  we  do  what 
we  like  to  do,  because  we  like  it,  we  show 
what  we  really  care  for  more  completely 
than  at  any  other  time.  Thus  state  how 
you  use  the  margin,  the  time  that  is  yours 
to  spend  as  you  please,  and  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  tell  what,  sometime,  you  are 
going  to  be.  Goethe  understood  this, 
and  when  he  wished  to  show  the  meaning 
in  the  lives  of  the  common  people,  he 
portrayed  them,  in  the  second  scene  of 
Faust,  not  on  the  six  days  of  routine 
work  under  the  compulsion  of  the  wills 
of  others,  but  on  the  one  Easter  holiday 
when  they  stream  out  through  the  city 
gates  into  the  woods  and  fields,  doing 
what  they  like  to  do  because  they  like  it, 
and  so  showing  the  ends  toward  which 
their  lives  really  move.  It  is  so  with  the 
individual  or  with  the  mass  of  men.  If 
you  would  understand  London,  go  to 
Hampstead  Heath  on  Bank  Holiday  and 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       2 1 

then  to  some  one  of  the  five  hundred 
music  halls  of  London  in  the  evening. 
Would  you  know  the  spirit  of  Paris,  sit 
down  at  one  of  the  boulevard  sidewalk 
cafes  and  watch  the  people  come  and  go, 
and  then  attend  one  of  the  characteristic 
theaters  of  Paris  in  the  evening.  It  is  in 
the  time  used  freely  in  response  to  desire 
that  men  show  the  purpose  of  their  lives. 
The  use  of  the  margin  is,  further,  our 
one  great  opportunity  to  change  the 
quality  of  our  lives.  Men  differ  from 
each  other  in  quality  rather  than  in  quan- 
tity of  life.  It  is  true,  some  are  granted 
more  years  than  others;  but  after  all  that 
is  not  so  important.  One  would  rather 
live  a  year  than  vegetate  for  a  century, 
though  I  grant  you  it  would  be  better  to 
live  for  a  hundred  years  than  for  one,  if 
we  could  be  sure  we  were  living  all  the 
time  and  not  simply  staying  above  the 
ground.  Yet  everyone  interprets  life  in 
terms  of  its  quality  rather  than  its  quan- 
tity.    Looking  back  over  the  past  one 


22       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

often  finds  a  day  or  a  week  standing  out 
longer  in  memory  than  years  that  pre- 
ceded and  followed  it.  It  was  longer, 
in  significance,  one  lived  more,  and  so  the 
day  had  deeper  meaning  for  the  spirit 
than  years  of  mere  routine  existence.  We 
have  lived,  not  so  many  days  and  years, 
but  so  much  work  and  love  and  struggle 
and  joy  and  heart-ache.  Life  is  always 
measured  in  terms  of  its  quality  by  the 
standards  of  the  soul. 

There  is,  moreover,  one  most  encour- 
aging and  consoling  law  in  human  devel- 
opment: we  grow,  not  in  an  arithmetical, 
but  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  the  increment 
of  new  life  being  multiplied  into  the  old 
and  not  simply  added  to  it.  A  new 
thought  achieved  is  not  added  to  the  sum 
of  one's  past  thinking,  but  multiplied 
into  it,  becoming  a  new  point  of  view, 
from  which  one  sees  in  changed  perspec- 
tive all  other  facts  and  ideas.  One  step 
up  the  mountain  widens  the  horizon  in 
all  directions. 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       23 

A  slight  study  of  mathematics  will 
show  that  even  a  large  factor  multiplied 
into  zero  will  give  zero;  while  a  quite 
small  factor  multiplied  successively  Into 
a  series  of  others  gives  a  large  result  In  a 
comparatively  short  time.  Thus,  unless 
there  Is  some  appreciable  increment  of 
new  life  each  day  the  result  is  quickly 
stagnation  and  spiritual  death.  We  keep 
the  good  of  the  old  day  by  vitalizing  It 
with  the  new.  It  Is  no  more  possible  to 
be  good  by  yesterday's  virtue  or  wise  by 
yesterday's  thinking  than  to  live  by  yes- 
terday's fresh  air  and  sunshine  and  nour- 
ishing food.  The  new  days  must  bring 
its  own  step  forward  of  life;  and,  when 
it  does,  the  past  Is  just  so  much  power  to 
take  the  step. 

It  is  thus  the  Increment  of  new  life 
multiplied  Into  the  old  that  so  largely 
determines  the  whole  product  of  life,  as 
far  as  it  is  within  our  own  control.  We 
can  no  longer  change  yesterday :  It  arches 
over  us  as   fate,  but  we  can   influence 


24      The   Use  of  the  Margin 

decidedly  the  factor  of  to-day's  life  which 
is  multiplied  into  the  whole  achievement 
of  the  past. 

That  is  why  the  margin  of  time  we 
have  to  spend  as  we  please  is  so  sacred; 
and  the  briefer  the  margin,  the  more 
precious  it  becomes.  If  you  have  ten 
hours  a  day  to  spend  as  you  please,  you 
may  perhaps  afford  to  waste  an  hour  of 
it — perhaps;  but  if  you  have  only  half  an 
hour  each  day  at  your  own  free  disposal, 
that  half-hour  becomes  a  sacred  oppor- 
tunity of  life,  the  chance  to  change  the 
quality  of  your  existence,  to  multiply  the 
capital  on  which  you  are  doing  business 
in  the  vocation  of  living.  And  yet  there 
are  people  foolish  enough  to  talk  of 
doing  something  to  "  pass  the  time," 
or — wickedly — even  to  "  kill  time  "  I 
Think  of  it:  carelessly  abandoning  or 
willfully  murdering  one's  own  potential 
life! 

No,  the  river  of  time  sweeps  on  with 
regular,  remorseless  current.     There  are 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       25 

hours  when  we  would  give  all  we  possess 
if  we  could  but  check  the  flow  of  Its 
waters,  there  are  other  hours  when 
we  long  to  speed  them  more  rapidly; 
but  desire  and  effort  alike  are  futile. 
Whether  we  work  or  sleep,  are  earnest 
or  Idle,  rejoice  or  moan  In  agony,  the 
river  of  time  flows  on  with  the  same 
resistless  flood;  and  it  is  only  while  the 
water  of  the  river  of  time  flows  over  the 
mill-wheel  of  to-day's  life  that  we  can 
utilize  it.  Once  It  Is  past.  It  Is  In  the 
great,  unreturning  sea  of  eternity.  Other 
opportunities  will  come,  other  waters  will 
flow;  but  that  which  has  slipped  by  un- 
used is  lost  utterly  and  will  return  not 
again. 

The  truth  I  am  expressing  Is  obvious : 
everyone  knows  it,  but,  unfortunately, 
few  apply  It.  We  live  only  one  mo- 
ment— that  which  Is  passing.  No  mat- 
ter how  long  eternity  might  stretch  out, 
life  would  still  be  only  in  the  passing 
moment.    To  be  sure,  man's  Instant  dif- 


26       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

fers  from  the  brute's  in  that  it  "  looks 
before  and  after."  The  brute  lives  in  a 
moment  that  excludes  past  and  future; 
while  man,  reaching  back  through  mem- 
ory and  history  to  the  inclusion  of  the 
remotest  past,  and  on  through  hope  and 
aspiration  to  a  share  in  the  unborn  future 
that  is  to  be,  lives  an  instant  that  may 
fuse  all  time  in  its  breast.  Nevertheless, 
we  live  but  one  moment — this  that  is 
swiftly  passing.  People  are  foolish 
enough  to  imagine  that  a  sum  of  nothings 
will  give  something,  but  their  arithmetic 
is  sadly  at  fault.  The  result  expresses 
only  what  is  in  the  units  that  compose  it: 
a  sum  of  wasted  days  will  not  give  a  year 
that  is  worth  while,  and  a  sum  of  wasted 
years  will  not  give  a  significant  lifetime. 
Thus,  the  result  in  the  whole  depends 
upon  our  use  of  the  passing  moment:  it 
Is  our  chance  to  live — our  only  one. 

This  does  not  mean  that  all  the  margin 
should  be  spent  in  hard  work:  on  the 
contrary,  the  best  part  of  it  should  be 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       27 

spent  In  play.  The  need  is  only  that  each 
moment  should  count  to  the  full  for  life. 
Aristotle  showed  long  ago  that  play  is 
the  one  perfect  form  of  human  action, 
and  hence  is  more  valuable  even  than 
work  for  the  attainment  of  the  highest 
ends  of  the  spirit.  Work  is  compelled 
action,  play  is  free,  spontaneous  action. 
The  compulsion  in  work  may  be  due  to 
the  necessities  of  existence,  the  wills  of 
others,  or  it  may  come  from  the  assertion 
of  our  own  will  seeking  significant  ends, 
but  always  some  such  force  is  present; 
while  when  we  play  the  natural  powers  of 
body  and  mind  flow  forth  in  joyous,  free 
and  spontaneous  expression.  The  best 
part  of  the  margin  should  therefore  be 
spent  in  play;  but  in  play  that  i?  not 
merely  diversion  or  distraction.  It  is  a 
serious  commentary  on  how  we  play  that 
we  use  such  words  for  it,  as  if  we  wanted 
to  be  turned  aside  from  the  earnest  inter- 
ests of  life.  True  play  is  recreation:  the 
creation  anew  of  forces  of  mind  and  body 


28       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

through  their  normal  expression.  Such 
play  is  the  running  of  a  child  in  the  fresh 
morning  sunshine,  the  response  to  the 
beautiful  in  art,  the  enjoyment  of  love 
and  friendship. 

To  play  well,  in  this  sense,  one  must 
have  worked  well.  If,  in  the  child,  play 
precedes  work,  with  the  adult  the  free 
spontaneous  action  is  possible  only  after 
the  hard,  compelled  one.  If  you  would 
find  the  most  miserable  people  in  the 
world,  go,  not  to  the  wretched  ones 
caught  in  the  cog-wheels  of  a  remorseless 
industrial  machine,  but  to  the  blase, 
world-weary  people  who,  with  vast 
opportunity,  have  refused  ever  to  do 
anything  they  did  not  like  to  do,  and  so 
end  by  going  over  the  face  of  the  earth 
vainly  seeking  to  escape  the  shadow  of 
their  own  disgust.  While  if  the  rhythm 
of  life  is  kept  sane,  the  harder  we  wrestle 
with  the  severe  problem  of  work,  the 
greater  is  our  power  to  enjoy  the  oppor- 
tunities of  true  play. 


The   Use  of  t/ie  Margin       29 

Dante  understood  the  problem :  all  the 
way  down  those  darkening  corridors  of 
the  Inferno  and  all  the  way  up  the  ever- 
brightening  terraces  of  the  mountain  of 
purification,  there  Is  just  one  lesson 
taught  over  and  over  again  to  Dante  by 
Virgil :  "  Pensa  che  questo  di  mai  non 
raggiorna  " — "  Think  that  this  day  will 
never  dawn  again."  Climb,  even  if  your 
limbs  are  weary  and  your  breath  comes 
short.  Now  is  your  chance  to  strive, 
soon  it  will  be  gone.  But  when  Dante 
comes  out  on  the  top  of  the  mountain 
into  the  garden  of  rest  and  peace,  Virgil's 
word  is  no  longer  "  Think  that  this  day 
will  never  dawn  again  " ;  rather  it  is : 

"Take  thine  own  pleasure  for  thy  guide  henceforth ; 

Free  and  upright  and  sound  is  thy  free-will. 

And  evil  were  it  not  to  do  its  bidding. 

Thee  0'  er  thyself  I  therefore  crown  and  mitre ! '  * 

That  is,  I  make  you  your  own  emperor 
and  your  own  pope,  your  own  sovereign 
in  temporal  and  spiritual  worlds  alike, 


30       Th   Use  of  the  Margin 

because  you  love  the  best  thing  best,  and 
the  next  in  its  place,  and  so  on  through  all 
the  succession  of  goods  answering  human 
desire.  Thus,  loving  all  things  only  in 
God,  Dante  has  become  of  those  Words- 
worth calls: 

*'Glad  hearts!  without  reproach  or  blot; 
Who  do  thy  work  [Duty]  and  know  it  not." 

So  Dante  represents  himself  as  wan- 
dering in  the  beautiful  garden,  listening 
to  the  bird-songs  and  to  the  spheric  mel- 
ody the  wind  wakens  in  the  pine-forest, 
waiting,  resting,  playing,  until  the  bright 
call  of  Beatrice  comes  to  lift  him  In  flight 
beyond  flight  Into  the  very  heart  of  the 
light  In  the  celestial  paradise.  It  Is  a 
fair  symbol  of  human  life  :  two  worlds  of 
hard,  compelled  action,  one  of  free,  spon- 
taneous action;  and  the  third  comes  only 
after  the  other  two  and  partly  because 
of  them. 

If  the  highest  use  of  the  margin  is  thus 
in  play,  one  grows  Increasingly  skeptical 


The  Use  of  the  Margin        3  i 

as  to  "  overwork."  I  have  yet  to  see  a 
student  suffer  merely  from  too  much 
work,  while  one  often  sees  students  so 
alarmed  by  some  anasmic  medical  adviser 
that  they  never  dare  work  to  the  limit  of 
their  power;  and  yet  all  work  below  that 
level  does  not  educate  us  as  It  might.  If 
one  could  die  of  overwork  it  would  not 
be  the  most  inglorious  of  ends.  I,  for 
one,  would  far  rather  die  of  overwork 
than  be  scared  to  death.  What  really 
harms,  however,  is  not  work,  but  work 
mixed  up  with  Insane  physical  habits  or 
work  with  worry.  Worry  Is  always  one 
of  two  things:  It  Is  idiocy  or  Insanity. 
You  may  take  your  choice,  there  Is  no 
third.  Worry  depresses  the  physical 
vitality,  destroys  courage,  dims  the 
vision  of  the  ideal,  weakens  the  will, 
stands  in  the  way  of  realizing  anything 
worth  while;  and  the  human  being  who 
hopes  to  accomplish  something  will  get 
worry  under  his  feet  at  the  earliest  possi- 
ble moment.     Work,  on  the  other  hand. 


32        The  Use  of  the  Margin 

good,  honest,  hard  work,  when  In  right 
relation,  builds  vitality  and  gives  In- 
creased power. 

The  difficulty  Is,  not  that  people  work 
too  much,  but  that  they  fall  to  apply  the 
great  open  secrets  of  wonderful  accom- 
plishment in  work.  It  Is  noteworthy  that 
all  the  great  secrets  of  human  living  are 
open  secrets :  everyone  knows  them ;  men 
of  genius  apply  them.  For  example: 
everyone  knows  It  Is  Impossible  to  think 
without  fresh  air;  and  yet  It  Is  only 
within  twenty  or  thirty  years  that  we 
have  been  building  our  school-houses 
with  reference  to  ventilation.  We  used, 
in  cold  weather,  to  close  doors  and  win- 
dows and  heap  up  a  big  fire  In  the  stove, 
and  then,  when  the  children  became 
drowsy  and  stupid,  we  whipped  them — 
surely  not  a  very  logical  method  of  de- 
veloping intelligence !  The  difficulty  was 
less  lack  of  knowledge  than  failure  to 
apply  what  everyone  knew.  So  is  It  with 
all  the  great  problems  of  human  life. 


The  Use  of  the  Margin        33 

What  are  the  open  secrets  of  wonder- 
ful accomplishment  In  work  that  men  such 
as  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Goethe  pecu- 
liarly understood  and  applied?  Consider 
what  either  of  those  myriad-minded  men 
accomplished.  Leonardo  we  think  of  as 
a  painter:  accidentally  he  was  so.  In  his 
time  painting  was  the  great  avenue  of 
expression,  and  men  of  genius  were  nat- 
urally drawn  into  it.  Really,  Leonardo 
was  a  scientist:  he  cared  to  trace  nature 
to  her  lair,  to  discover  her  at  work  in 
her  own  laboratory.  We  are  told  he 
would  follow  a  grotesque  or  ugly  face 
for  miles — as  far  as  he  would  a  beautiful 
one.  Once  he  had  caught  Its  secret, 
drawn  it,  he  was  careless  of  making  a 
picture,  of  leaving  behind  a  finished 
work  of  art.  He  was,  further,  a  philoso- 
pher; he  wrote  treatises  on  drawing  and 
painting;  Invented  a  new  method  of 
writing;  taught  a  generation  of  artists; 
invented  musical  Instruments  and  played 
wonderfully    upon    them;    carried    out 


34        The  Use  of  the  Margin 

great  engineering  works;  was  the  friend 
and  counsellor  of  princes  and  statesmen; 
wrote  masques  for  the  Court  at  Milan; 
superintended  their  production:  Leon- 
ardo, like  Goethe,  did  enough  in  any  one 
of  half-a-dozen  fields  to  justify  his  place 
in  the  world  as  a  man  of  genius.  How 
did  he  achieve  it  all  in  one  brief  life- 
time? 

There  are,  I  believe,  two  great  open 
secrets  that  explain  the  achievement  of 
men  such  as  Leonardo  and  Goethe.  The 
first  is  so  simple  you  may  be  surprised 
when  I  state  it :  it  is — concentration — 
putting  all  the  mind  you  have  on  the  task 
in  hand  while  you  do  it,  and  when  that 
is  no  longer  possible,  turning  to  some- 
thing else.  I  suppose  everyone  imagines 
he  understands  this :  try  it,  the  next  book 
you  read — not  the  next  mass  of  printed 
pages,  but  the  next  book  seriously  chal- 
lenging your  thought.  If  you  have  not 
practised  recently  the  art  of  conscious  con- 
centration, you  will  perhaps  find  that  five 


The  Use  of  the  Margin        35 

or  ttxi  minutes  is  as  long  as  you  can  hold 
your  mind  intensely  and  actively  on  the 
task  in  hand.  Stop  then,  and  go  out  to 
take  a  walk;  return  and  try  again.  In  a 
month  you  will  have  multiplied  the  time 
you  can  work  in  that  intense  fashion.  In 
a  year,  you  have  changed  the  quality  of 
your  intellectual  life,  which  is  as  good  as 
multiplying  the  quantity.  To  live  with 
twice  the  significance  is  worth  at  least  as 
much  as  living  twice  as  long. 

One  ought  never  to  read  merely  pas- 
sively, unless  the  purpose  be  to  respond 
to  artistic  beauty.  Where  knovv^ledge 
and  ideas  are  the  end  in  view  It  is  absurd 
to  read  every  word  on  every  page.  Sup- 
pose, for  example,  one  takes  up  what 
Is  to  one  a  new  field  of  reading: 
let  me  say  Sociology.  The  first  book 
one  takes  up  must  be  read  through 
word  for  word.  The  second,  however, 
repeats  in  facts  and  ideas  a  consid- 
erable portion  of  the  first;  and  when 
a  dozen  books  have  been  mastered,  the 


36        The  Use  of  the  Margin 

next  contains  comparatively  little  that 
has  not  already  been  learned.  To  read 
that  next  volume  as  the  first  In  the  field 
was  read  is  simply  to  waste  human  life. 
One  must  learn  to  read  actively,  to  see 
at  a  glance  what  a  page  contains  that  one 
does  not  already  know,  to  divine  from 
index,  preface  and  table  of  contents  what 
a  volume  contains  that  is  worth  study. 

There  is  an  interesting  story  told  of 
Napoleon  when  he  was  a  boy  at  the  mili- 
tary school.  It  is  said  he  attempted  a 
certain  mathematical  problem  that  no 
teacher  or  pupil  in  the  school  had  ever 
been  able  to  solve.  He  isolated  himself 
in  his  room  for  seventy-two  hours,  and 
came  out  with  the  problem  solved.  Now 
that  was  not  a  wise  thing  to  do :  if  the 
problem  had  not  given  way,  in  time 
Napoleon's  physical  constitution  would, 
and  it  was  seriously  endangering  his 
health  to  work  for  seventy-two  hours 
upon  one  problem.  Yet  the  power  of 
concentration  and  force  of  will  that  made 


The  Use  of  the  Margin        37 

it  possible  for  Napoleon  to  hold  his  mind 
for  so  long  a  time  continuously  upon  one 
problem  was  the  force  of  will  and  energy 
of  character  that  swept  all  Europe  with 
the  armies  of  France  and  changed  the 
map  of  the  world;  and  I  have  often 
thought  if  you  and  I  could  bring  to  bear 
upon  the  causes  in  which  we  believe  such 
energy,  character  and  force  of  will,  what 
might  we  not  accomplish?  We  could 
change,  not  the  map  of  Europe,  but  the 
spiritual  aspects  of  the  life  of  mankind. 
Every  college  teacher  understands  my 
meaning.  The  student  comes  in  the 
morning  saying:  "  I  spent  four  hours 
on  my  lesson  yesterday,"  and  the  poor 
instructor  groans  inv/ardly.  For  what 
does  the  student's  complaint  mean?  Is 
It  that  he  actually  worked  four  hours 
on  the  lesson  at  the  top  of  his  bent,  and 
perhaps  failed  to  get  it?  If  so,  one  of 
these  results  follows:  either  the  student 
does  not  belong  in  that  class  or  the 
instructor  was  criminal.     Does  it  mean, 


38        The  Use  of  the  Margin 

on  the  other  hand,  that  the  student  sat  at 
the  window,  with  an  apple  and  a  book; 
ate  a  little  and  read  a  little;  looked  out 
the  window,  vaguely  wondering  why 
Miss  Brown  was  walking  with  Mr. 
Jones,  and  whether  he  would  get 
through  in  time  for  the  party  in  the 
evening;  and  then  glanced  at  the  clock 
to  note  that  four  hours  had  passed?  On 
investigation  with  my  own  students,  I 
found  it  usually  the  second  case  and  not 
the  first.  To  say  that  you  spent  four 
hours  on  a  lesson  means  nothing:  how 
much  intellectual  energy  did  you  spend? 
Did  you  work  for  one  half-hour  with 
all  your  might  ?  5  have  known  students 
to  go  through  the  common  schools  and 
the  high  school  and  graduate  from  col- 
lege, without  ever  once  in  their  entire 
student  life  working  for  fifteen  minutes 
at  the  top  of  their  intellectual  power; 
and  yet  it  is  only  such  work  that  de- 
velops the  mind  in  the  highest  degree. 
Thus  the  first  open  secret  of  wonderful 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       39 

achievement  is  concentration;  and  it  is 
one  that  can  be  learned  and  applied  in 
the  wise  use  of  the  margin. 

The  second  secret,  even  more  than  the 
first,  is  the  one  such  men  as  Leonardo 
and  Goethe  have  especially  understood, 
and  whose  consistent  application  explains 
their  astounding  achievement.  It  is  the 
secret  of  turning  from  one  form  of  ac- 
tion to  another,  without  wasteful  fric- 
tion, and  making  the  second  action  rest 
you  from  the  first.  Again  you  say, 
"  how  simple,  and  how  universally  un- 
derstood." Yes!  but  how  seldom  con- 
sistently practised!  Take  an  example 
again  from  the  field  of  intellectual  life 
where  the  application  of  this  principle 
should  be  especially  evident:  what  day 
in  the  week  are  there  the  poorest  lessons 
in  every  school  in  America?  Monday 
morning;  and  it  is  worse  in  the  college 
than  in  the  primary  grade.  Why? 
Surely  Monday  morning,  when  the  col- 
lege student  has  had  Friday  evening,  all 


40       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

day  Saturday,  not  to  mention  Sunday,  In 
which  to  get  his  lessons,  should  show  the 
best  work  of  the  week.  Yet  habitually 
the  student  comes  unprepared.  Give  him 
a  few  hours  of  regular  mill-wheel  grind, 
and  he  does  fairly  well;  but  give  him 
plenty  of  time  and  opportunity,  and  he 
fails  to  use  it.  There  is  no  excuse:  It  Is 
mere  dead  inertia;  and  if  you  want  the 
plainer  word  for  inertia,  it  is  laziness. 

Again,  what  three  weeks  in  the  year 
are  there  the  poorest  lessons  in  every  col- 
lege in  America?  I  have  studied  the 
question  somewhat;  and  I  am  not  quite 
sure  whether  it  Is  the  last  three  before 
the  summer  vacation,  or  the  first  three 
In  the  autumn,  after  Its  close;  but  I  think 
It  Is  the  latter.  Yet  surely,  after  the  long 
summer  vacation  the  student  should  re- 
turn so  refreshed  by  other  forms  of 
activity  that  the  opening  weeks  of  the 
term  should  be  the  most  valuable  of  his 
year.  He  has  been  to  the  sea-shore  or 
the  mountains ;  or  he  has  been  working  on 


The   Use  of  the  Margin      41 

a  threshing  machine,  selling  books  to  an 
unsuspecting  public  or  doing  some  other 
semi-honorable  labor  to  get  money  for 
his  next  year's  course;  and  thus  he  should 
turn  again  to  intellectual  work  with 
splendid  vigor  and  make  the  first  days 
count  to  the  full.  Yet  the  student  com- 
plains: "It  takes  me  a  month  to  get 
back  into  my  studies."  He  should  be 
ashamed  to  make  such  a  dishonorable 
confession  until  he  has  done  his  best  to 
conquer  the  fault.  Again,  there  is  no 
excuse  for  the  failure:  it  is  due  to  mere 
Inertia — laziness. 

Next  to  the  first  three  weeks  in  the 
autumn  it  is  the  last  three  before  the 
summer  vacation  that  are  most  nearly 
wasted  in  every  college  in  our  land.  We 
do  what  we  can  to  hold  the  student  up 
to  the  end:  refuse  degrees  and  credits 
unless  he  remains  faithfully;  multiply  ex- 
aminations that  should  have  been  obso- 
lete long  ago,  and  resort  to  all  manner 
of  petty  tricks.    It  does  little  good ;  the 


42       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

last  weeks  the  work  ravels  out  and  goes 
to  pieces.  And  it  is  not  that  we  close 
too  late:  if  we  stopped  three  weeks 
earlier  it  would  be  the  same.  It  Is  that 
because  we  are  going  to  stop  soon  we 
begin  to  let  go  In  advance,  and  so  waste 
the  last  part  of  one  action  and  the  first 
part  of  the  next  In  mere  useless  friction. 
What  place  on  the  program  of  a 
ministers'  meeting  or  a  teachers'  meeting 
does  every  speaker  dread?  The  last 
half  hour  before  closing.  Now  minis- 
ters and  teachers  are  unusually  cultivated 
people  with  a  relatively  high  degree  of 
self-control;  yet  even  with  such  hearers, 
the  fact  that  the  audience  Is  to  go  soon 
makes  it  begin  to  leave  some  time  in 
advance.  Even  If  people  are  too  cour- 
teous actually  to  get  up  and  go  out,  their 
minds  wander,  they  go  in  spirit;  and 
thus,  again,  waste  the  last  part  of  the 
one  form  of  action  and  the  first  part  of 
the  next,  through  carelessness.  It  Is  so 
with  a  Wagner  opera  or  a  Shakespeare 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       4;^ 

drama.  To  be  sure,  there  is  the  subur- 
banite, with  his  pitiless  last  train,  and  it 
is  not  pleasant  to  stay  unprepared  in  the 
city  overnight  in  evening  dress.  Watch, 
however,  the  people  who  spoil  the  last 
twenty  minutes  of  noble  music  or  impres- 
sive drama :  they  do  not  look  like  subur- 
banites, but  are  rather  the  people  who 
because  they  are  to  go  soon  begin  going 
now,  and  so  injure  the  joy  and  culture  of 
themselves  and  of  their  neighbors, 

I  have  been  making  some  observations 
of  people  who  travel,  and  have  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  enough  time  is  wasted 
on  railway  trains  and  at  railway  stations 
to  carry  on  all  the  educational  activities 
of  America  if  that  time  could  be  utilized 
with  some  degree  of  intelligence.  I  do 
not  refer  to  the  people  who  loaf  about 
the  stations :  let  us  assume  that  they  are 
hopeless  and  beneath  consideration;  but 
to  those  who  are  there  for  some  serious 
purpose.  Your  train,  for  example,  is 
late:  what  do  you  do?     Walk  up  and 


44       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

down  the  platform,  examine  your  watch, 
ask  the  agent  if  the  train  is  near:  it  will 
not  put  steam  in  the  boiler,  bring  the  train 
a  moment  sooner;  it  is  cultivating  a  kind 
of  nervous  prostration,  letting  your  en- 
ergy run  off  uselessly  in  every  direction. 
Your  train  comes;  you  enter  it  for  the 
hours  of  your  journey;  you  cannot  read 
much  without  hurting  your  eyes;  nature 
goes  by,  stimulating  to  your  imagination : 
it  is  one  of  the  best  occasions  in  the  world 
to  think.  Yet  what  do  people  do  ?  They 
buy  a  later  and  later  edition  of  some 
sensational  newspaper  just  to  keep  from 
thinking — to  let  the  mind  be  titillated 
by  a  series  of  vagrant  fancies  and  reports 
of  incidents  that  come  and  go.  Thank 
heaven  they  go  1  Think  what  it  would 
be  if  they  all  stayed  in  the  mind.  The 
fault  is  again  mere  careless  failure  to 
use  the  full  opportunity  for  one  action, 
and  turn  from  it,  without  wasteful  fric- 
tion, to  the  next. 

Both   secrets   of   wonderful   achieve- 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       45 

ment  might  be  summed  up  in  Goethe's 
maxim :  "  Ohne  Hast,  ohne  Rast  " — 
"  Unhasting,  Unresting  "  —  to  work 
without  the  heedless  waste  that  defeats 
its  own  end,  yet  with  never  the  rest  of 
idleness,  finding  refreshment  in  changed 
activity — such  is  the  secret  of  great 
achievement. 

Yet  between  man  and  what  he  hopes 
to  accomplish  in  either  work  or  play  may 
intervene  a  third  element — dissipation. 
When  the  word  is  used,  do  not  imagine 
that  mere  insane  physical  habits  are 
meant:  they  are  bad  enough,  and  the 
ruin  they  cause  is  only  too  obvious;  but 
dissipation  in  any  aspect  of  life  means 
the  same  thing — wasting  one's  capital 
stock.  One  should  spend  one's  income, 
as  we  have  seen — all  of  it;  but  the  man 
who  gets  to  spending  his  capital  is 
headed  for  bankruptcy.  Nature  never 
forgives:  the  word  forgiveness  is  not 
written  in  her  vocabulary.  If  you  spend 
the  capital  of  physical  health  you  go  into 


46       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

some  degree  of  physical  bankruptcy;  if 
you  waste  the  capital  of  mental,  emo- 
tional or  moral  health,  in  the  same  way 
you  invite  bankruptcy.  It  is  true,  other 
capital  may  be  won,  wasted  opportunities 
may  not  abrogate  new  chances;  but  the 
drafts  we  make  always  come  due  and 
must  be  paid  relentlessly. 

There  are  certain  forms  of  dissipation 
especially  menacing  at  the  present  time 
because  growing  on  us  as  a  people.  One 
of  the  worst  of  them  in  the  intellectual 
world  has  already  been  hinted — the  mis- 
use of  newspapers.  I  believe  in  news- 
papers: they  serve  two  ends:  they  are 
our  forum  for  current  opinion  and  our 
text-book  of  current  history.  No  one 
can  be  aware  of  what  the  world  Is  doing 
and  thinking  without  making  use  of 
newspapers.  On  the  other  hand,  It  Is 
an  unusually  good  newspaper  that  is 
worth  more  than  twenty  minutes  of  the 
day  of  a  busy  man  or  woman;  and  to 
spend  all  the  time  one  has  for  intellec- 


The    Use  of  the  Margin       47 

tual  culture  In  going  aimlessly  over  the 
list  of  crimes  and  casualties  in  the  news- 
papers is  to  cultivate  a  dangerous  form 
of  intellectual  dissipation,  sure  in  the 
long  run  to  destroy  the  power  of  logical 
thinking  altogether. 

Great  editors  have  understood  this: 
we  are  told  that,  with  scarcely  an  excep- 
tion, each  has  cultivated  some  one  field 
of  scientific  investigation.  That  Is,  the 
great  editor  has  been  so  conscious  that 
his  work  of  going  over  all  the  chaotic 
events  of  the  world,  with  the  aim  of 
bringing  them  into  some  order  and  giv- 
ing the  semi-digested  result  to  his  read- 
ers, was  intellectually  disintegrating,  that 
he  followed,  aside  from  his  vocation, 
some  one  strong  Intellectual  interest 
capable  of  giving  order  and  unity  to  his 
mind.  What  Is  true  of  the  editor  Is  true 
in  a  measure  of  his  readers;  and  while 
there  are  times  when  It  may  be  justifiable 
to  enter  on  an  intellectual  debauch — even 
to  take  a  Sunday  newspaper  and  spend 


48       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

two  hours  In  going  over,  in  a  half-som- 
nolent fashion,  all  the  fact,  invention  and 
fancy  it  contains — to  make  such  an  opiate 
the  daily  bread  of  the  intellectual  life  is, 
in  the  end,  to  destroy  the  power  of  logical 
and  active  thinking. 

Another  form  of  dissipation,  growing 
upon  us  as  a  people  to-day,  is  in  reading 
nothing  but  cheap  magazines.  I  believe 
in  inexpensive  literature — that  the  best 
books  should  be  brought  within  the  reach 
of  the  humblest  purse;  but  when  cheap- 
ness of  price  and  general  accessibility 
go  along  with  cheapness  of  quality  the 
result  is  disastrous.  I  was  told  by  the 
editor  of  one  of  the  most  widely  sold 
American  magazines  that  it  was  no  use 
to  give  the  American  public  a  serious 
article  between  the  first  of  April  and  the 
first  of  October.  I  do  not  believe  the 
statement;  but  he  says  it  is  true,  and 
he  sells  his  magazine — amazingly.  If 
even  a  fraction  of  the  indictment  is  true, 
think  what  it  means :  between  the  first  of 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       49 

April  and  the  first  of  October,  lie  the 
months  when  we  might  read  serious 
articles — most  of  us.  It  is  the  dull  sea- 
son in  business,  the  general  period  of 
vacations;  and  yet  our  intellectual  caterer 
tells  us  that  when  we  might  read  serious 
articles  we  will  not,  but  prefer  intellectual 
dissipation.  After  all,  it  is  books  above 
our  level  that  educate  us.  Books  on  our 
level  flatter  us,  make  us  think  we  are  wise 
when  we  are  not,  while  books  above  our 
level  act  as  a  challenge  to  the  intellect. 
One  who  comes  back  even  from  an  unsuc- 
cessful wrestle  with  the  Divine  Comedy 
or  the  second  part  of  Goethe's  Faust  will 
find  whole  acres  of  modern  literature  no 
longer  tempting  to  him;  he  has  grown 
past  their  need  and  service. 

A  third  form  of  intellectual  dissipa- 
tion is  found  to-day  in  public  lectures. 
These  may  be  made  a  most  helpful  form 
of  public  education,  extending  oppor- 
tunities of  culture  to  people  already  in 
the  business  of  life.     It  Is  the  one  who 


50       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

gives  the  lecture,  however,  who  gets  the 
main  education  from  it  (which  is  some 
compensation  in  the  lecturer's  harassing 
vocation)  ;  and  if  the  one  who  listens 
to  the  carefully  prepared  thought  of 
another  is  to  receive  anything  lilce  the 
same  culture  as  the  one  who  is  thinking 
on  his  feet,  the  mind  of  the  hearer  must 
work  on  the  same  plane  of  intellectual 
activity  with  the  one  who  speaks,  and  not 
be  a  mere  recipient  sponge  into  which 
the  waters  (  ?)  of  the  intellect  enter  only 
to  pass  out  again.  Moreover,  for  each 
hour  of  listening,  even  active  listening, 
to  the  carefully  formulated  thought  of 
another,  there  should  be  at  least  two 
hours  of  hard  study  and  thought  at 
home.  Only  on  these  conditions  can 
public  lecture  work  be  made  other  than 
one  more  polite  form  of  dissipation. 

Thus  one  may  dissipate  in  the  most 
beautiful  things,  In  art,  in  music,  poetry, 
love,  religion.  Wherever  emotional 
stimulation   is   received  without   finding 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       5 1 

expression  in  action,  an  inner  ferment  re- 
sults that  leaves  the  last  state  of  the 
man  worse  than  his  first.  One  may  shed 
so  many  tears  over  the  imaginary  charac- 
ters of  novels  that  one's  eyes  are  dry 
towards  the  people  who  starve,  physic- 
ally or  spiritually,  in  the  next  street.  One 
may  see  so  constantly  imaginary  charac- 
ters on  the  stage,  without  ever  making 
the  connection  between  the  symbol  and 
the  real  life  the  drama  symbolizes  and 
interprets,  that  one  loses  sympathy  for 
the  same  sufferings  in  the  actual  world. 
Wherever  the  beauty  of  the  arts  is 
sought  as  a  mere  selfish  indulgence  and 
the  stimulus  from  it  finds  no  expression 
in  bettered  action,  the  result  is  a  very 
refined  but  most  positive  deterioration  in 
moral  character. 

Professor  James  has  said  it  in  his 
admirable  whimsical  way  in  the  ethical 
sermon  he  calls  a  chapter  on  Habit  in  his 
Psychology :  "Even  the  habit  of  exces- 
sive indulgence  in  music,  for  those  who 


52       The   Use  of'  the  Margin 

are  neither  performers  themselves  nor 
musically  gifted  enough  to  take  it  in  a 
purely  intellectual  way,  has  probably  a 
relaxing  effect  upon  the  character.  ,  .  . 
The  remedy  would  be,  never  to  suffer 
one's  self  to  have  an  emotion  at  a  con- 
cert, without  expressing  it  afterward  in 
some  active  way.  Let  the  expression  be 
the  least  thing  in  the  world — speaking 
genially  to  one's  aunt,  or  giving  up  one's 
seat  in  a  horse-car,  if  nothing  more 
heroic  offers — but  let  it  not  fail  to  take 
place."  The  idea  is  not  a  jest:  do  you 
ever  listen  to  beautiful  music  without  a 
certain  exaltation  of  spirit,  a  feeling  that 
now  you  could  really  achieve  the  ideal 
of  which  you  have  always  dreamed?  If 
you  do  go  home  and  fail  to  express  that 
powerful  appeal  in  some  form  of  helpful 
action,  you  would  distinctly  better  not 
have  gone  to  the  concert. 

One  may  apply  the  thought  even  to 
religion.  You  go  to  church  on  Sunday. 
The  music  puts  you  into  a  receptive,  med- 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       5  3 

itatlve  mood.  The  minister  says  some- 
thing that  touches  your  mind  and  heart. 
You  go  away  saying  that  you  feel 
"  good."  If  you  put  off  that  good  feel- 
ing with  your  Sunday  gown  or  coat  for 
the  six  days  that  follow,  you  would  dis- 
tinctly better  not  have  gone  to  church. 
The  good  feeling  was  simply  so  much 
inspiration  to  helpful  action,  and  when 
not  embodied  in  conduct  tends  to  a  dissi- 
pation of  the  energies  of  character. 

There  is  a  closed  circle  psychologically 
between  reception  and  expression;  and 
we  break  that  circle  habitually  only  with 
grave  moral  as  well  as  other  risk.  Every 
stimulus  from  the  world  of  sensation 
passes  along  some  nerve-tract  to  a  sensor 
center  of  the  brain,  over  to  a  motor  cen- 
ter, and  out  along  some  other  nerve- 
tract  to  expression.  Your  friend  enters 
the  room,  and  you  spring  to  your  feet, 
while  a  smile  comes  to  your  face;  or,  you 
slip  on  a  banana-peel  and  fall,  and  a 
pained  look  comes  to  your  face  and  pos- 


54       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

sibly  tears  to  your  eyes.  To  be  sure,  we 
learn  often  to  inhibit  the  more  normal 
expression  and  switch  off  the  stimuli  to 
other  channels.  One  doesn't  always 
smile  (unless  one  is  a  Japanese)  no  mat- 
ter who  enters  the  room,  and  the  fallen 
wayfarer  learns  to  inhibit  the  tears  that 
might  shame  him  to  the  passer-by.  Yet 
the  closed  psychological  circle  remains, 
and  when  one  habitually  switches  off  the 
most  powerful  emotional  and  intellectual 
stimuli  from  the  field  of  active  expres- 
sion in  conduct,  one  becomes  a  Hamlet 
or  Amiel  in  whom  noble  feelings  and 
ideas  effervesce — brilliantly,  it  is  true, 
but  with  little  effective  application  to 
life. 

Indeed,  one  may  dissipate  even  in  serv- 
ice of  others,  if  one  responds  to  every 
whimsical  appeal  from  without,  with  no 
attention  to  the  central  aim  of  life.  For 
example,  suppose  that  you  are  a  school- 
teacher, engaged  in  the  work  of  control- 
ling and  guiding  twenty,   thirty,   forty, 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       ^c^ 

sometimes  (mistakenly  enough)  even 
more  little  minds,  each  with  energy  run- 
ning off  in  every  channel ;  your  aim  being 
not  to  suppress  activity  but  to  direct 
it  so  that  at  the  end  of  the  day  some- 
thing significant  has  been  attained.  It 
is  work  so  exhausting  that  it  is  no  won- 
der the  teacher  goes  home  at  night 
utterly  tired  out,  ready  to  sink  into  bed 
in  the  sleep  of  nervous  exhaustion.  But 
there  are  those  hundred  spelling-papers 
to  be  gone  over  and  corrected  and  under- 
lined with  red  ink!  Now  it  is  a  good 
thing  to  examine  spelling-papers:  it  is 
paying  tithes  of  mint,  anise  and  cummin, 
and  there  are  times  when  such  tithes 
should  be  paid.  Sometimes,  indeed,  one 
must  examine  spelling-papers,  owing  to 
the  unwisdom  of  some  superior  official, 
when  in  the  nature  of  the  case  it  would 
be  better  not  to  do  so;  but  there  are 
times  when  one  can  get  out  of  it  and 
when  it  is  right  to  do  so.  Suppose  you 
examine  those  spelling-papers  and  care- 


56       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

fully  underline  the  faulty  words  With  red 
ink,  and  return  to  the  school-room  in  the 
morning  so  on  edge  with  nervous  weari- 
ness that  the  children  are  at  once  on  edge 
also  and  seeking  opportunities  for  dis- 
obedience :  do  you  imagine  you  can  teach 
anything?  Suppose  for  once  you  were 
to  take  those  spelling-papers  and  put 
them  into  the  fire — let  them  be  if  not 
"  thoughts  that  breathe,"  at  least  "  words 
that  burn  " !  Go  out  under  the  stars, 
hunt  up  your  friend  or  read  the  last  novel, 
go  to  bed  early  and  sleep  soundly  with  a 
clear  conscience  all  night  long.  Then  in- 
deed one  might  return  to  the  school-room 
in  the  morning  feeling  that  teaching  is 
not  such  miserable  work  after  all,  rather 
liking  children,  interested  somewhat  in 
the  day's  activities:  then  indeed  one  may 
teach  something.  It  is  the  old  lesson: 
*'  these  ought  ye  to  have  done  and  not 
to  leave  the  other  undone."  One  must 
pay  tithes  of  mint,  anise  and  cummin, 
but  not  to  the  extent  of  neglecting  the 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       ^y 

weightier  matters  of  the  law ;  and  among 
the  weightiest  of  all  weighty  matters  of 
the  law  in  any  vocation,  for  one  who 
hopes  to  achieve  something  worth  while, 
is  to  be  a  sane,  balanced,  wise  man  or 
woman,  living  steadily  toward  some  cen- 
tral aim.  Thus,  for  one  who  hopes,  in 
either  work  or  play,  to  achieve  something 
significant,  dissipation — the  wasting  of 
one's  capital  stock — must,  in  any  aspect 
of  life,  be  rigorously  excluded. 

For  those  who  would  use  the  margin, 
whether  in  work  or  play,  so  as  to  convert 
it  into  the  capital  of  character,  intelli- 
gence and  power  there  are  certain  closing 
suggestions.  Some  part  of  the  margin 
should  be  spent  in  following  one  definite 
intellectual  interest  continuously  through 
the  years.  It  is  amazing  what  an  influ- 
ence on  the  whole  intellectual  and  moral 
life  such  an  interest  consecutively  fol- 
lowed will  contribute,  even  when  the  time 
devoted  to  it  is  very  brief.  Fifteen 
minutes  a  day,  or  a  half-hour  three  times 


58       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

a  week,  devoted  to  one  definite  study, 
will  make  one  a  master  in  that  field  in  a 
dozen  years.  Such  work  is  sowing  seed 
corn  in  the  furrow  of  daily  life,  which 
will  bear  fruit  far  beyond  the  original 
planting.  Not  the  least  valuable  result 
of  such  study  is  the  unifying  and  order- 
ing of  the  intellectual  life,  so  that  each 
event  and  experience  is  brought  into 
place  and  relation  and  made  to  yield  its 
own  contribution  to  the  whole. 

Further,  in  these  days  of  severe  pres- 
sure and  over-hasty  action,  some  part  of 
the  margin  should  be  spent  in  cultivating 
the  lost  art  of  solitude  and  meditation. 
To  see  how  studiously  people  strive  to 
avoid  being  alone  is  to  be  led  to  believe 
that  they  fear  something  vacant  or 
terrible  when  they  are  alone.  Yet  to  live 
well,  one  must  be  friends  with  oneself; 
for  we  gather  in  solitude  the  strength 
and  balance  that  enable  us  to  return 
helpfully  to  the  world.  Emerson  put  it, 
"  Men    descend    to    meet."     Certainly, 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       59 

ideal  society  is  limited  to  two;  when  a 
third  enters,  the  plane  of  conversation 
becomes  lighter  and  less  earnest;  and  the 
only  way  in  which  a  roomful  of  people 
can  discuss  serious  questions  is  by  tem- 
porarily resolving  itself  into  two:  one 
who  for  the  time  being  speaks  and  one 
who  listens.  Even  then  the  speaker 
can  voice  what  is  deepest  in  his  heart 
only  if  he  speak  to  the  ideal  apprecia- 
tive listener,  who  may  not  be  present 
at  all. 

Another  part  of  the  margin  should  be 
spent  in  cultivating  the  all  but  lost  art 
of  friendship.  We  have  much  society, 
but  little  friendship;  yet  it  is  the  close 
personal  associations  that  give  vitality 
and  depth  to  life.  One  of  the  strangest 
perversities  of  human  nature  is  that 
which  leads  us  to  give  our  best  selves  to 
the  people  who  count  least,  and  to  con- 
sider ourselves  justified  in  spending  our 
meanness  and  irritation  on  those  we  love 
best  and  who  are  most  deeply  influenced 


6o       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

by  our  lives.  We  put  on  our  best  dress 
morally,  as  well  as  physically,  and  strive 
to  meet  at  high-water  mark  the  stranger 
within  our  gates;  and  then  we  are  in- 
clined to  remove  both  types  of  garment 
when  we  turn  to  the  members  of  our 
family  circle  and  the  friends  most  inti- 
mately bound  to  our  lives.  If  you  have 
twenty  letters  to  answer,  you  are  apt  to 
begin  with  the  one  from  the  person  you 
know  least,  and  leave  your  intimate 
friend's  letter  unanswered  at  the  bottom 
of  the  pile  because  he  will  understand. 
To  be  sure,  he  will  understand,  but  is  it 
not  mean  to  take  it  out  of  him  because 
he  does?  If  we  could  not  be  courteous 
all  the  time  (which  might  be  possible) 
would  it  not  be  better  to  spend  our  dis- 
courtesy on  the  stranger  within  our  gates, 
who  comes  and  goes  and  does  not  care 
so  much,  and  save  every  finest  flower  of 
courtesy  for  those  whose  lives  are  often 
lifted  or  broken  by  our  chance  action  or 
word?    It  is  true  one  does  not  want  to 


The   Use  of  the  Margin      6 1 

wear  Sunday  clothes  all  the  time,  and  it 
is  one  of  the  beautiful  joys  of  personal 
life  that  we  may  rest  back  quietly  on  tiic 
loving  appreciation  of  those  who  stand 
nearest  us;  but  one  should  never  appear 
in  moral  undress  before  the  intimate 
associates  of  one's  life.  Courtesy  is  the 
atmosphere  of  personal  life,  covering  the 
bare  rocks  of  human  reality  with  a  gar- 
ment of  living  beauty.  It  is  impossible 
to  live  in  hard  contact  with  those  bare, 
unclothed  realities;  and  one  high  use  of 
the  margin  is  to  enable  us  to  cultivate  the 
atmosphere  of  courtesy  that  enables  us  to 
recover  the  art  of  friendship  in  personal 
life. 

There  is  one  friend  available  In  the 
margin  of  life  who  never  intrudes  on  our 
moods,  but  is  always  ready  to  respond: 
this  great,  beautiful,  sublime  Nature- 
mother,  who  knows  when  to  speak  and 
charm  us  with  the  music  of  her  countless 
voices;  and  who  knows  when  her  human 
child,  tired  with  the  work  of  the  long 


62       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

day,  asks  only  the  sweet  peace  he  finds 
on  her  breast.  Some  part  of  the  margin 
should  be  spent  in  responding  to  the 
exalting  and  calming  influences  of  the 
Nature-world. 

What  is  true  of  the  influence  of 
Nature  applies  also  to  human  art.  The 
greatest  value  of  the  fine  arts  lies,  not  in 
any  lesson  they  may  teach,  nor  even  in 
the  soothing  memories  of  beauty  they 
may  leave  with  us,  but  in  the  exalting 
power  they  exercise  over  the  human 
spirit.  Through  those  creations  of  art 
which  represent  the  highest  achievement 
of  the  spirit  of  man  we  are  lifted  out  of 
the  submerging  stream  of  daily  events 
and  enabled  to  look  down  on  the  plain  of 
life  from  the  mountain-heights,  with 
wide  perspective  and  calm  vision. 
Herein  indeed  lies  the  supreme  service 
of  art  to  the  spirit  of  man.  To  climb 
Dante's  sheer  peak  and  look  off  from 
its  cold  isolation;  to  wander  among  the 
tangle  of  mountains  of  Goethe's  genius; 


The   Use  of  the  Margin       63 

to  look  off  from  the  summits  of  Shake- 
speare's art,  with  now  a  wild  reach  of 
Alpine  splendor  and  now  a  quiet  valley, 
sun-lit  and  filled  with  warm  life,  opening 
to  our  gaze;  to  feel  the  storm  upon  the 
Himalayan  heights  of  Beethoven;  and 
watch  the  light  and  shadow  play  over 
the  forest-clad  peaks  of  Michael  Angelo ; 
— is  it  not  to  get  the  distance  of  the  spirit 
in  relation  to  the  overwhelming  mass  of 
details  filling  our  daily  lives? 

If  then  we  will  habitually  use  in  such 
ways  the  margin  that  is  ours  to  spend  as 
we  please,  shall  we  not  Increase  Immeas- 
urably the  capital,  in  character,  intelli- 
gence and  appreciation,  of  our  lives?  We 
may  hope  then  to  be  lifted  out  of  the 
routine  of  daily  existence  into  wide  unity 
with  the  best  in  nature  and  m.an.  The 
deepened  capacities  of  spirit  will  bring  an 
added  return  through  all  that  we  expe- 
rience In  our  business  and  in  the  relations 
we  sustain  to  others.  Thus  shall  we  grow 
In  power  to  fulfill  the  true  vocation  of 


64       The   Use  of  the  Margin 

man — noble  living,  and  find  unfailing 
and  increasing  joy  and  interest  in  ever 
learning  the  never  finished  art  of  life. 


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